Checkup

Published 3:25 pm, Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Middle-age and older patients are unlikely to benefit in the long term from surgery to repair tears in the meniscus, pads of cartilage in the knee, a new review of studies has found.

Researchers at McMaster University combined data from more than 800 subjects treated for meniscal tears with surgery, sham surgery or nonoperative care. The subjects' average age was 56.

In six of the trials, the surgery provided a significant improvement in short-term functioning. But the data showed no significant difference in long-term function among patients in the three groups. Nor did surgery provide short- or long-term pain relief.

Dr. Moin Khan, a research fellow at the university and lead author of the study, published in the Canadian Medical Journal, said that its conclusion does not pertain to an acute meniscus tear in a young person. That requires surgery.

"But chronic pain from a small meniscus tear in a middle-aged person may not benefit from surgery," he said.